For some reason I’m fascinated by stories about destitute family members of rich and famous celebrities. Most recently we heard about Madonna’s homeless alcoholic brother. There’s also Josh Brolin’s homeless brother, who lives in his car. Then there are family members of the rich and famous who are struggling to get by, like Justin Bieber’s grandmother, who works in a factory, and Tobey Maguire’s grandfather, who lives in subsidized housing and is on social security. I don’t believe that celebrities should necessarily give their relatives a handout, I just like to learn the stories behind how one of them ended up rich beyond belief while the other can barely afford to live. Family relationships are complicated and we can find ourselves in vastly different places in life from the people we grew up with.

“30 Rock’s” Tracy Morgan is the latest celebrity who isn’t helping a down on their luck relative. What’s more is it’s not a brother or sister or distant cousin, it’s his own mom and her house is about to go into foreclosure. She only owes about $25,000 on it and she’s diabetic and recently lost her job. Here’s the story, from the NY Daily News:

Tracy Morgan ’s mother is about to lose her house — and she says her multimillionaire son won’t help her.

Alicia Warden, who lives in northeast Ohio (and spoke on the condition we not reveal the exact location), says she owes less than $25,000 on her home, but the most the “30 Rock” star — who is worth $18 million, according to Forbes — offered to give her was a one-time payment of $2,000.

The comic’s younger sister, Asia Morgan, 41, confirms their mom’s financial woes and calls her famous brother a “d– bag.”

She says she’s done keeping quiet about Tracy, 43. “Because of the way he’s treating our mother, all bets are off,” says Asia.

“He’s never been a nice person,” says Asia, who lives about an hour and a half away from her mother. “And money’s just made it worse.”

Warden, 61, says her mortgage company has notified her that if she doesn’t make a minimum payment by Feb. 23, it will begin foreclosure proceedings on her home. She adds that her utilities are about to be turned off and she’s about to lose her car as well.

“My mom’s house isn’t extravagant, but it’s her home, Her health is failing. She has diabetes, and her legs are giving out on her,” says Asia. “This would be a drop in the bucket for Tracy. She has a son that can do, and she’s done everything that she could possibly could for her family.”

Warden says she worked until February 2011, when she lost her job. Not long after that, she adds, she first approached Tracy about helping her.

She claims he initially agreed to pay off her house, but changed his mind after accusing her of giving an interview to the media. (She denies doing this.)

Her unemployment benefits have run out, and Warden says she asked her son for help earlier this month.

After explaining what she owed, she says a woman working for him called back and told her, “Tracy’s offering you a one-shot deal” of $2,000.

“I told her, ‘Thank you, but no thank you. I’m not some person in the street,” Warden says, adding “That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

“God don’t like ugly,” Warden says. “Karma comes back to you.”

Asia also reiterates what her mother told us last week about Morgan’s book, “I Am the New Black.”

“It’s 99 percent bulls—,” she says.

“My mother did everything she could,” Asia adds. “She ran numbers, but she did it to put food on the table. We were raised in the [Tompkins] projects [in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn}, but we didn’t think we were poor.”

We wonder if this situation is part of the 99. Morgan writes that regardless of the estrangement from his family, “I love my mother and always will. She did the best she could.”

A spokesman for Morgan did not respond by our deadline.

[From The NY Daily News]

I once heard about a guy who won the lottery and promised to set his sister up. He won about a million bucks, but this was in the late 90s so it was worth more than it is today. I met the sister, who worked in a bank and told me this story after I went to deposit around $2,400 that I had randomly won in the lottery. (That’s all I’ve ever won and I barely play now.) She said that her brother told her to quit her job, but she didn’t and kept on working. The brother later blew the money on a bad business deal in Jamaica, where they were from.

I don’t know what the answer is when it comes to helping out your relatives. It seems like it would be easy enough for Tracy to bail his poor mom out of her house and car payments, but who knows what kind of a mother she was, or how their relationship is now. He offered her $2,000 and they acted like it was an insult. The fact that his sister is bad mouthing him to the press after he offered some money makes me think that there’s much more to this story than a poor old lady who can’t get a rich son to help her out.

Tracy is shown on 1-26-12 on the set of “30 Rock.” He seems to be fine after his health crisis at Sundance. Credit: Fame

Jennifer Lopez’s 24 year-old backup dancer boyfriend doesn’t make enough money to keep her in the style that she’s accustomed to, so she’s remedied that. Star Magazine [via Jezebel] is reporting that she gives him a very generous $10,000 a week allowance. Some of that he spends on her, of course, and the rest he presumably gets to keep. So the little twerp is making over a half million a year just to screw J.Lo, drive her around in the Bentley she’s either lending or leasing him, buy her some presents and accompany her on vacations. I doubt she expects him to pay for accommodations out of that $10k a week. Insanely nice work if you can get it, and how again did this kid land the job? Just by being in the right place at the right time, for the woman who can’t stand to be alone for a minute. Here’s the story:

Jennifer Lopez has a kept man! She hated having to whip out her credit card every time she went to dinner with 24-year-old dancer Casper Smart, and it “bummed her out” that Casper had to borrow money from her to buy her a Christmas present. So Jenny from The Block started giving the kid an allowance a “stipend” of $10,000 a week. According to a source, “She thought $10K was a nice round number.” Apparently Casper is “learning to live like a star,” flying on private jets and staying in luxury hotels. Now that he’s getting paid, “Jen is hoping Casper won’t think twice about buying presents for her kids of whisking her off for a surprise weekend getaway,” the source spills. “She can take care of herself just fine, but she’s old-fashioned when it comes to wanting the man to take charge.” Plus! He needs new clothes for events and stuff. Just think of her as Richard Gere and Casper as Julia Roberts, going “woo woo woo” at a polo game. Which means Jenny gets to snap a jewelry box on Casper’s fingers! Fun! But seriously, being a rich forty-something lady and gleefully supporting your much-younger house boy boyfriend is what America is all about, right?

[Details from Star, writeup at Jezebel]

How is that “old fashioned” to give a “boyfriend” that much money and then sit back and pretend that they’re paying for everything? Bedhead pointed me to this story in the Post that suggests that Madonna might be doing the same thing with her much-younger boyfriend, Brahim Zaibat. Brahim was seen paying the bill at a restaurant with Madonna, which may mean that she gave him a credit card that she pays off for him. It’s probably cheaper than just giving the kid a hefty allowance. I guess it’s less embarrassing for these ladies to try and keep up the illusion that they don’t have kept men. It should be embarrassing enough that they’re dating them in the first place.

J.Lo and Casper are shown outside a jewelry store on 12-18-11. Credit: Fame

Here are some shots from Lindsay Lohan’s ad campaign for Philipp Plein, the one that she shot in September in Italy, in between escort gigs. Allegedly, LL got paid $500,000 - for the ad campaign, and likely to “date” Philipp Plein for a week while he “promoted” her and his brand. I have to say – I saw some of the candids from this photo shoot, and my expectations were pretty low, but these aren’t terrible. They’re much better quality than I was expecting, except that there’s only so much Photoshop that you can use to de-crackify that face. Also – look at LL’s mouth in the shot where she’s wearing red. You can really see her jacked crack teeth. This campaign was shot before she got her teeth “fixed.”

Meanwhile, LL is embroiled in a new scandal. She got high for three years and forgot to file her taxes in 2009. Oh, Cracken.

Lindsay Lohan has a brand new $93,000 problem — because the federal government claims the actress never paid her 2009 income tax … and now Uncle Sam is finally out to collect.

According to official documents filed in Los Angeles, the Internal Revenue Service has obtained a lien against Lohan for $93,701.57 for failure to pay her federal income tax.

2009 wasn’t a very lucrative year for Lohan … she only released one crappy made-for-TV movie, coupled with a few minor TV appearances.

Now, if Lohan refuses to pay the debt … the government can go after anything that belongs to her … including homes, cars and bank accounts … assuming she has any of those things.

We called Lohan for comment — so far, no response.

[From TMZ]

She’ll pay. She’s got Philipp Plein and Playboy money burning a whole in her pocket, so she’s got the funds. The funds will dry up, though. Very quickly. The question I have, though, is about who exactly “forgot” to file her taxes? Because you know LL has never sat down and tried to do it herself – surely she has an accountant? Surely Mother Crackhead – Linnocent’s MANAGER – would be on top of stuff like “filing tax returns.” Right?

Photos courtesy of Philipp Plein.

It’s very well established that Octomom Nadya Suleman lies, that she’s manipulative, that she wastes money wildly, and that she can in no way be trusted or relied upon. (I could cite multiple examples just off the top of my head but I’ll spare you.) Which basically sucks for her poor children more than anyone else. She’s mentally ill, she’s conniving, she repeatedly cries poor, and no one wants to work with her. Suleman lost a public relations manager in 2010 and the guy came out with a whole story that Suleman told him about how she deliberately got pregnant with 11 embryos in order to get rich and famous. The story was later proven true when Suleman’s doctor lost his license for implanting 12 embryos in her.

So now yet another person in Suleman’s employ has quit, her manager. The manager tells TMZ that they could never get in touch with Suleman and that she was unreliable. Suleman of course claims she fired the manager.

If you’re wondering why Octomom’s Facebook, Twitter, and Ustream accounts have all been suddenly deleted … it’s because the mother of 14 has just been dropped by her management team — TMZ has learned.

Sources close to Nadya Suleman tell us, it’s all because Octo was the ultimate flake — her management team would book her on paying gig after paying gig … and Nadya “would find any reason” to cancel last minute … often claiming she couldn’t find a babysitter.

We’re told Octomom was great the past year — raking in lots of dough through appearances and different celebrity events — but getting her to work the past couple months has been like pulling teeth.

By the end, we’re told it was nearly impossible even to reach Octo by phone — and her managers had just about enough … so they dropped her this weekend.

We reached out to Octomom’s now-former manager Gina Rodriquez — who replied, “I quit on her because she is unmanageable. She would not reply to anything work-related we would call or text about especially if it was not paid.”

Gina added, “Regardless of the $70k we made her, she still claimed to not be able to pay any of her bills. We no longer wanted a part of any of it and we feel sorry for the children.” – From TMZ

---

“I fired my manager today and she’s a little upset so she shut down all my profiles online,” Nadya tells us.

“I chose not to work with her anymore. New year, new beginning.

“I’m not technologically savvy but I’ll have to now start from scratch and set up my own Facebook and Twitter as she had done all that for me.” – From Radar

[From Radar and TMZ]

So which one are you going to believe? My money is on the manager, since we know Octo is incapable of telling the truth. Early last year Octo got schooled by Suze Ormon on the Oprah show about how to take control of her finances and quit spending more than she earned. Of course Octo hasn’t changed her approach to money at all, of course she and her innocent kids are still living in very rough conditions that she created and enabled, and of course she’s pissing away opportunites to earn more money. Her kids are still going to private school while she claims she can’t make ends meet. And there are still people like Dr. Drew enabling her by giving her free childcare, free internet access, and maid services. (Octo couldn’t accept the childcare because she claimed to not have anywhere for a nanny to sleep.) For all you can say about what a cold piece of work Kate Gosselin is, she seems like a much better person and mother than Octo.

Back in October, Page Six had a suspicious little article about Stacy Keibler and how she had not-so-casually jacked up her “appearance fee” ever since she added “George Clooney’s girlfriend” to her resume. Many celebrities, both major and minor, will make an appearance at your event, your club opening, your budget awards ceremony, or your birthday party if you pay them. Before Clooney, Stacy was making $10,000 for appearances – and in October, she jacked her rate up to $25,000. There’s still no word as to whether Stacy is giving Clooney a special rate.

Anyway, Stacy has been doing more solo events lately, even traveling internationally to make appearances, and I’m guessing her rate has gone up again. The subject of “money” is always tricky when it comes to George Clooney and his ladies – he never likes for them to be too successful. He wants them to make a profit, sure, and he helps find them “jobs” but it’s not like he’s dating girls with MBAs or real, stand-alone careers anything. So In Touch Weekly has an interesting story about how much money Stacy is making now, and how Clooney keeps buying her all of these gifts:

Could Stacy Keibler be any luckier? On top of being gorgeous, she’s also being romanced by one of Hollywood’s most sought-after bachelors, George Clooney.

Now in demand thanks to their relationship, an insider reports “the offers are rolling in – and she’s making a ton of money!”

And to top it off, the 50year-old actor is spoiled his new lady like crazy this Christmas. As a pal reveals, he already bought his 32-year-old girlfriend a $15,000 Cartier Love bracelet with diamonds and a vintage Hermes handbag.

“He’s going all-out,” his friend says. “He’s spending around $100,000 on her gifts!”

[From In Touch Weekly, print edition]

“On top of being gorgeous…” Easy, Cray-Cray. I just can’t believe another girl is falling for the same old Clooney move! Sarah Larson became a “model” when she dated Clooney – and after he dumped her, she had to go back to hostessing (“escorting”) in Vegas. Elisabetta got “modeling” jobs too – and Clooney even bought her an acting gig on Leverage. And now look how far Eli has fallen – screaming fights with a C-list actor that she was probably bearding for. I’ve said it before – I hope Stacy is saving her money. I hope she’s putting together a nice little nest egg, and I hope she asks for receipts for all of Clooney’s gifts. Because once she gets dumped, the offers are no longer going to be “rolling in.”

Photos courtesy of Fame & WENN.

I was in a bookstore yesterday, shopping for someone else, and I happened to see the hardback of Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations, and I made a mental note that I needed to add it to my Christmas list that I give my mom. Also on my list? Adele’s new live CD and LL Bean wool clogs (which I love, and I now want in every color). I give my mother a list still, to this day, even though I am well into adulthood because she’s already going to buy me stuff, so it might as well be the *right* stuff, and she prefers that I give her a list anyway, so she doesn’t just buy me endless pairs of socks.

What’s my point? Even when I’m thinking about what gifts I really, really want, I’m a pretty reasonable person – a nice book, a CD, a pair of shoes. That’s all I really want. If I do want something really expensive, I rationalize my way out of the purchase or I just buy it myself, with my own money. I’ve never owned a pair of $700 shoes. I enjoy looking at pairs of expensive shoes, but I can easily rationalize my way out of purchasing a pair. I always enjoy hearing what celebrities consider “must haves” though – it usually shows how out-of-touch they are, even when I know they really just mean their recommendations from the heart. Let’s take Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who recommends that women save one dollar every week for seven years just so they can buy a pair of Louboutins one day. But you know that seven years from now, a pair of Louboutins will cost 1,200 Apocalypse Romney Bucks!

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley managed to win the hearts of many, many men when she took the reins from Megan Fox to star in the latest “Transformers” installment, but she has one little secret that helps her put some extra sexiness in her step. Seven hundred dollar Christian Louboutin heels.

“They make me feel like a woman. I feel they make you look very sexy, the cuts are beautiful, the lines, the colors the embellishments,” Huntington-Whiteley gushed to FOX411’s Pop Tarts column at the shoe designer’s book launch at Barney’s in Beverly Hills last week. “I think he managed to capture something so special for women, every girl should be lucky enough to have them.”

Yet amid this cash-strapped economy, the British supermodel has some words of wisdom for women pining for a pair – which retail at around $700.

“If you can save up for a pair put away a dollar a week,” she advised. “It’s worth it girls. It is really worth it!”

(At a dollar a week, that would take approximately 14 years, for those of you keeping score.)

Since getting a taste for rolling cameras, lights and action in Michael Bay’s hit blockbuster, Huntington-Whiteley has caught the acting bug big time, and has high hopes for more movies in the future.

“(‘Transformers’) was a huge challenge for me and I think it was the right time in my life to be challenged, I had a lot of fun and learned a lot making it,” she said. “I would love to work with another great filmmaker again, and I think my dreams are the same as any new actress – to work with a great cast, and I would love to do something that’s a little different from my role in ‘Transformers’ – and something hopefully that will challenge me in a different way.”

Yet when it comes to her personal life, the rising star (and Jason Statham’s squeeze) refuses to complain about the increasing paparazzi and tabloid attention.

“I am very lucky in my life so I don’t wish for anything I don’t have, and I actually manage to get around just fine. I’m just fine,” she added. “It’s not too much, I manage to avoid it when it’s necessary, but I’m very thankful for everything.”

[From Fox News]

She means well. She’s trying to convince all of us unwashed masses that this is what we really need – $700 Louboutins, which, granted, lots of ladies do seem to like. I see those nude stilettos on nearly every celebrity lady, so they must be one of the more comfortable and versatile pairs of heels in the high heel universe. I’ll also give Rosie a little bit of credit for not going all Goop on us, patronizing us by saying that not only MUST we buy the shoes, but we just desperately need to (lose some weight and) update our wardrobes with some $1000 blouses. Rosie’s shill was quick and dirty: buy these expensive shoes. The end. Like, “I am the 1%. You can be like me too if you buy these shoes. Goodbye.” The kicker, of course is that Rosie doesn’t have to pay for Louboutins even though she can afford thousands of pairs – she probably gets all of this stuff for free.

Also, if Rosie actually turns into an in-demand actress, I’ll eat my proverbial hat (I don’t wear a hat, my head’s too big).

Photos courtesy of Fame and WENN.

The Ecclestone sisters are like The Kardashians and The Hiltons on steroids with an accent. They’re richer than both families put together and they have much more real estate, accessories and toys. They’ll tell you about it too. The last we heard from Tamara Ecclestone she was posing nude with one million pounds in real cash for that creep of a photographer, Tyler Shields. Tamara, 27, is one of the heiresses to the Formula One fortune and she has a reality show and home in West London worth $70 million dollars. Her sister Petra just bought Candy Spelling’s mansion, the largest in L.A. county, for $85 million. Petra defended her purchase, saying “I help as much as I can but at the end of the day, however much the house has costed, that’s not going to kind of I dunno, like change the world I don’t think.” She doesn’t seem to grasp that she could have built and fed an entire village for that money easily. Plus Petra’s wedding just cost around $65 million. It’s clear that Tamara has a similar approach when it comes to spending. In a new interview with British Closer Magazine, she shows off her shoe, bag and clothing collection, most of which she’ll only wear once. It’s worth well over six figures.

Petra Ecclestone became known this summer as the world’s richest bride. But her older sister Tamara is no slouch in the luxury department, either — particularly when it comes to shoes.

Tamara, 27, a TV personality in Britain and the daughter of Formula One billionaire Bernie Ecclestone, opened her shoe closet to Closer magazine to reveal 100 pairs of Christian Louboutin heels, 15 pairs of Ugg boots, 20 pairs of sneakers (“though I never work out,” she tells the magazine) and a handful of Ginas and Jimmy Choos.

The value of her shoes alone? Easily $100,000, the Daily Mail estimates.

Her shoes and clothes take up the entire spare bedroom of Ecclestone’s apartment in London’s chic Chelsea district. She also owns loads of designer bags and dresses, and admits that she “usually only wears clothes once.” The Closer staff believes her entire wardrobe to be worth around one million British pounds.

“My mum’s horrified by the amount I spend on clothes,” the socialite shares. But she’s determined to change her ways. “People think I’m a spoiled rich girl, but I want to demonstrate that I’m more than just the daughter of someone famous.” For more with Eccelstone, pick up the latest issue of Closer, on British newsstands now.

[From People]

I’m so torn on this story because I love bags and shoes. I try to work within my budget but I do own bags and shoes worth over $200 a piece. Just a scant few mind you, but they’re there. If I had this kind of sick money, I might end up with a gorgeous closet too. I like to think that I’d get over this superficial crap quickly and do something worthy with my time, though. That’s probably completely inaccurate considering that I gossip for a living. Still, this chick wants to show that she’s “more than just the daughter of someone famous” and isn’t “spoilt,” as I’ve heard her sister pronounce it. The way to do that is not to show off her designer clothes and do a reality show. Maybe she should go easier on the makeup too. What is with this trend of spackling it on?

Photo credit: Closer Magazine via Daily Mail Other photos credit: WENN.com.

When I’m writing endlessly about Linnocent and her insane crack shenanigans, you know I like to use “crack” as a verb, noun, adjective, and perhaps even an adverb (“she walked crackily”). Sometimes I’ll stop myself and wonder, “Gee, will people ever think I’m talking about Linnocent’s actual crack, as in her ‘vadge,’ as opposed to her all-encompassing crackhead status?” Do you ever make that mistake? Because I sometimes catch myself and think, “NO. I can’t say ‘crack’ here because it could be read in a way that is much too vulgar.” With that in mind, there’s some news about The Cracken’s crack, and I don’t care how vulgar that is. She’s posing for Playboy! And the crackhead is getting PAID too.

Lindsay Lohan is shooting nude photos for Playboy — TMZ has confirmed — and LiLo don’t strip for peanuts … the spread will earn her almost a million dollars!

Sources tell us the deal has been in the works for months, and that Lindsay balked at an initial $750K offer because she wanted … ONE MILLION dollars … to show the world what her momma gave her (apologies for the DiLo reference).

We’re told Hugh Hefner and Co. recently came back to Lindsay with an offer less than her asking price — but close enough for her to sign on the dotted line. No word yet on which issue Linds will be featured in … but it’s a good bet she’ll be on the cover.

Lindsay’s rep said, “I can neither confirm or deny at this time.” Playboy didn’t immediately respond to our email or phone call. 

According to sources, the shoot started over the weekend — which means Linds was juggling her court ordered morgue duties … with getting nekkid.

Sweet, sweet multi-tasking.

[From TMZ]

Am I alone in not thinking this is some huge deal? Linnocent has already shown her firecrotch in candids, and she’s already done several half-naked photo shoots (like the Marilyn one). I’m only surprised that she hasn’t posed for Playboy before this. Plus, that million-dollar payday will certainly help with her hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, plus her legal fees, plus her drug “expenses”. Basically, she’s already blown through that $1 million before it’s even in her hot little hands.

Oh, and here’s another interesting story – Linnocent just fired her manager Lou Taylor. Taylor also managed Britney Spears, and according to TMZ’s source (Dina), “Lindsay felt Taylor (who also manages Britney Spears) didn’t have the time to manage her and Lohan wanted someone who could put more effort into her…Lindsay felt her finances (which were Taylor’s responsibility) were beginning to slip through the cracks and word was getting back to her that her balances were not being handled in a timely manner … in part because Taylor is based in Tennessee.” Linnocent’s delusional rep, Steve Honig, told TMZ that “the split was amicable”. Is anyone else surprised that LL still had a manager? That’s the most shocking part. I also like how The Cracken is basically throwing Lou Taylor under the bus, and blaming him for her cracked-out financial mess. I wonder who Linnocent’s new manager is going to be? CoughcoughMotherCrackiecough. After all, it was probably Dina’s idea to get her daughter to pose for Playboy.

Photos courtesy of Fame & WENN.